Why ethnic nationalities adopted Atiku, by Clark

Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark has explained why ethnic nationalities picked Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential Atiku Abubakar as their anointed candidate for Saturday’s presidential poll.

Elders of various groups in the six geo-political zones of country last week endorsed Atiku as their candidate.

Clark said Atiku was picked ahead of other candidates simply because he is the only that agreed to restructure the country.

Besides, Clark noted that Atiku possesses what it takes to represent Nigeria among the comity of nations.

Briefing newsmen at the weekend, the former National Commissioner said the South-South stands for restructuring and would only vote for the candidate that will restructure to ensure equity and justice.

The 91- year- old elder statesman said the only thing left on his agenda is restructuring, which he vowed to pursue with the last drop of his strength.

He stressed that restructuring  the country has nothing to do with the breaking up of Nigeria but the creation of a new Nigeria where every citizen is equal and all the Federating states or regions are able to develop at their pace under the practice of Fiscal Federalism.

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According to him: “We have now seen that our salvation is in restructuring. If we do not restructure this country, this country will not survive.”

“So people are now asking what do we do? In any civilized country, election is the deciding factor.

“Nobody forces himself on you. You go to the poll and vote. Our message if you want to restructure Nigeria, you are our man and if you do not want to restructure Nigeria, you are not our man.

“So people are wondering why we adopted Atiku.  Some of our boys who think they are Jews have said dying old men have  been taking money from Atiku.

“So ladies and gentlemen, we believe that Nigeria belongs to all of us. So when we had that so many people were interested in being the president of Nigeria, and we decided to invite about seventeen of them including Atiku and the rest.

“The PDP presidential candidate in our discussion with him, which lasted for two hours, told us that he support restructuring and he has been working for it since 1985.

“From the bottom of our heart, we saw that Atiku Abubakar was the only sincere person who believed in restructuring.”

He also noted that the choice of Atiku was not made by just two people but people from the six geo-political zones.